In U.S. Pat. No. 4,030,401, issued on June 21, 1977, to the assignee of the present application, there are disclosed faired articles. Such articles include ropes or cables having a series of laterally-extending streamers or fairings which function, when the rope or cable is installed in an undersea environment, to reduce strumming of the cable, generated noise, cable fatigue and drag. Less strumming makes the cable less likely to be attacked by fish, and less noise makes the cable better suited for use with hydrophones.
In U.S. Pat. No. 3,975,980, issued on Aug. 24, 1976 to the assignee of the present application, there is disclosed method and apparatus for manufacturing such faired articles. In brief, the method and apparatus utilizes a special-shaped needle-like rod which is mounted inside of the ring of a braider and which reciprocates through the path of movement of the braid yarns as a jacket is braided over the core of a cable moving axially through the braider. The needle has an eye through which the fairing yarn is threaded, and the needle cooperates with a hook downstream of the braid-ring to produce loops which, upon movement of the braid yarns, are locked between the core and the jacket. Thereafter, the loops are preferably severed by a knife blade mounted downstream of the hook. The patents also disclose a method and apparatus for producing loops in a cable structure which does not include a central core.
While the method and apparatus disclosed in the aforementioned patents function entirely satisfactorily, the use of a reciprocating needle inside the braider ring is a factor limiting the rate of production of the cable, the spacing of the fairings, and the size of the cable and fairings. While there is a demand for small-diameter cables having a substantially continuous row of fairings projecting laterally thereform, heretofore, it has not been economically feasible to produce such cables by the method and apparatus disclosed in the aforementioned patents.